Brazilian football legend Pele dead at 82

Brazilian football icon Pele, widely regarded as the greatest player of all time and a three-time World Cup winner who masterminded the "beautiful game," died at the age of 82.

"Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace," daughter Kely Nascimento wrote on Instagram.

The Albert Einstein hospital treating Pele said in a statement his death after a long battle with cancer was caused by "multiple organ failure."

He had been in increasingly fragile health, battling kidney problems and colon cancer -- undergoing surgery for the latter in September 2021, followed by chemotherapy.

Born October 23, 1940, in the southeastern city of Tres Coracoes, Edson Arantes do Nascimento grew up selling peanuts on the street to help his impoverished family get by.

Pele dazzled from the age of 15, when he started playing professionally with Santos. He led the club to a flurry of titles, including back-to-back Intercontinental Cups, against Benfica in 1962 and AC Milan in 1963.

He scored an all-time record 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches for Santos (1956-74), the Brazilian national team, and the New York Cosmos (1975-77).

Named athlete of the century by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, Pele is the only footballer in history to have won three World Cups -- in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Nicknamed "O Rei" (The King), he scored more than 1,000 goals in one of the most storied careers in sport, before retiring in 1977.